Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

I recently finished Michael Gray’s excellent “Hand Me My Travelin’ Shoes – In Search of Blind Willie McTell” which is the inspiration for today’s show. In addition to focusing on Blind Willie we play the music of his fellow Atlanta bluesmen, just about all who were inspired by McTell and several who played with him. Like Memphis, Atlanta was a staging post for musicians on their way to all points. It’s not surprising then that the first country blues musician, Ed Andrews, was recorded there in 1924. The company that recorded him, Okeh, was one of many to send their engineers to Southern cities to record local talent. Companies like Victor, Columbia, Vocalion and Brunswick made at least yearly visits until the depression.

McTell was born in Thomson, Georgia, near Augusta, and raised near Statesboro. He played a standard six-string acoustic until the mid-’20s, and never entirely abandoned the instrument, but from the beginning of his recording career, he used a 12-string acoustic in the studio almost exclusively. He was A major figure with a local following in Atlanta from the 1920s onward, he recorded dozens of sides throughout the 1930s under a multitude of names — all the better to juggle “exclusive” relationships with many different record labels at once — including Blind Willie, Blind Sammie, Hot Shot Willie, and Georgia Bill, as a backup musician to Ruth Mary Willis. Willie’s recording career began in late 1927 with two sessions for Victor records, eight sides including “Statesboro Blues.”

He recorded prolifically through the 1930′s a did a session for the Library of Congress in 1940 under the supervision of John Lomax. The newly founded Atlantic Records — which was more noted for its recordings of jazz and R&B — took an interest in Willie and cut 15 songs with him in Atlanta during 1949. The one single released from these sessions, however, didn’t sell, and most of those recordings remained unheard for more than 20 years after they were made. McTell cut his final sides for record store owner Ed Rhodes in 1956, who had begun taping local bluesmen at his shop in Atlanta in the hope of releasing some of it. These turned out to be the only tapes he saved, out of all he’d recorded.

A younger contemporary of Blind Willie McTell and Curley Weaver, Eugene “Buddy” Moss was part of a near-legendary coterie of Atlanta bluesmen, and one of the few of his era lucky enough to work into the blues revival of the 1960s and ’70s. By the time he arrived in Atlanta, he was good enough to be noticed by Curley Weaver and Robert “Barbecue Bob” Hicks, who began working with the younger Moss. It was Weaver and Bob that got him his first recording date, at the age of 16, as a member of their group the Georgia Cotton Pickers, on December 7, 1930. In January of 1933, however, he made his debut as a recording artist in his own right for the American Record Company. He frequently played with Barbecue Bob, and after Bob died of pneumonia on October 21, 1931, he found a new partner and associate in Blind Willie McTell, performing with the Atlanta blues legend as local parties in the Atlanta area. A jail term curtailed his career from 1935-1941. Moss made some further recordings before WW II interfered. Moss continued performing in the area around Richmond, Virginia and Durham, North Carolina during the mid-’40s, and with Curley Weaver in Atlanta during the early 1950s, but music was no longer his profession or his living.

One of the first recorded products of the Atlanta blues community of the pre-war era, Peg Leg Howell bridged the gap between the early country-blues sound and the 12-bar stylings to follow. He signed to Columbia in 1926. Howell recorded prolifically up until 1929; he recorded solo and with his street group, the Gang (guitarist Henry Williams and fiddler Eddie Anthony). Williams was imprisoned not long after, and following Anthony’s 1934 death, Howell gradually disappeared from the area blues circuit. He spent the next several decades clouded in obscurity, with diabetes claiming his other leg in 1952. Howell was 75 when the Testament label sought him out in 1963 to record his first new material in over 40 years; he died in Atlanta on August 11, 1966.

Eddie Anthony and Henry Williams cut one 78 in 1930. In addition Anthony recorded as Macon Ed with the mysterious Tampa Joe. They cut eight sides in 1930.

Little is known about Fred McMullen. He cut 8 issued sides in 1933 for ARC label. Was part of the group called the Georgia Browns with Buddy Moss and Curley Weaver who cut 10 sides in 1933.

Barbecue Bob was the name given by Columbia Records talent scout Don Hornsby to Atlanta blues singer Robert Hicks. Hicks is widely credited as being the singer who more than any helped to popularize Atlanta blues in its formative period. Born to a family of sharecroppers in Walnut Grove, GA, Robert Hicks and his brother, Charley “Lincoln” Hicks relocated with them to Newton County. There the Hicks brothers came in contact with Savannah “Dip” Weaver and her son, Curley Weaver. With the Weavers, the Hicks boys learned to play guitar and sing. Robert Hicks was the first of this group to “break out”; Hicks’ first Columbia record, “Barbecue Blues,” recorded in Atlanta on March 25, 1927 and was a big hit. Over the next three years he made 62 sides for Columbia. Hicks died in 1931 of pneumonia. He was only 29.

Hawkins’ 1950 and 1951 find the excellent guitarist Chuck Norris in the band and on the latter session pianist Willard McDainiel (Hawkins lost the use of an arm in a car wreck). Among the highlights from this period was the shuffling “Wine Drinkin’ Woman” with it’s lengthy rollicking piano intro, the rocking “Mean Little Girl”, the driving “Trouble Makin’ Woman” boasting wailing sax from Maxwell Davis and supple guitar from Johnny Moore. There were of course mellower fare including “You’re The Sweetest Thing” and gorgeous low down ballads like “Blues All Around Me” (“My home is like a graveyard/And my bed’s like a tomb/And I hope my baby will come home soon”) and the sublime “Gloom And Misery All Around” covered by Ray Charles in 1951 as “The Snow Is Falling.” Also cut during this period was “The Thrill Is Gone” which peaked at #6 on the R&B charts and many years later revived by B.B. King who took the song to #3 R&B, #15 Pop in January 1970.

Hawkins never achieved a hit of the same magnitude but Modern stuck with and he continued to record some first rate material. The 1952 session featured T-Bone Walker on guitar, prominently featured on terrific numbers like “Highway 59″, “Doin’ All Right”where T-Bone really cuts loose and the “Thrill Hunt” clearly intended to cash in on the success of “The Thrill Is Gone.” The two numbers from 1953, “Bad Luck Is Falling” and “The Condition I’m In”, are fine numbers unfortunately marred by way too much echo. Better were a 1954/55 session that produced the tough rolling blues of “It’ Hard” and the moody “If I Had Listened.” These would be Hawkins’ last songs for Modern until one final hook up in 1961 for Kent, which Modern had become by then. Hawkins was still in fine form, albeit with a more contemporary sound, on a stomping, impassioned cover of “Trouble In Mind” and a terrific update of his haunting 1948 number “Strange Land” which remained in the can until 1970. The band on these numbers is unlisted by it’s a good bet that the stinging guitar, heard to fine effect on the latter number, is by Lafayette Thomas.

In his absence from Modern Hawkins recorded little outside of a 1958 session for the San Francisco Rhythm label. The session lacked the intensity of his Modern sides although Hawkins was backed by the marvelous guitarist Lafayette Thomas who really shines on “I Hate To Be Alone” the session’s best number although “Baby, Please Don’t Go” retains some of the passion of his earlier sides. He also cut a one off side under the moniker Mr. Undertaker for the Los Angles Music City label in 1955 that I haven’t had the opportunity to hear.

Thankfully the Ace label has issued the bulk of Hawkins’ recordings on CD continuing from their first vinyl release in the early 1980′s. In 2000 Ace issued “The Thrill Is Gone” collecting some of his best numbers and followed it in 2006 with “Bad Luck Is Falling” which included uncollected singles, alternate takes and unissued sides. Hawkins’ four song session for the Rhythm label has been issued by the Westside label on the collection “Rhythm & Blues: 50′s Blues & R&B.”

Why Do Everything Happen To Me (MP3)

Gloom And Misery All Around (MP3)

Strange Land (MP3)

West Coast blues doesn’t have the same cachet as say Delta Blues or Chicago Blues but during the 1940′s the blues scene was really heating up on the West Coast (there was no pre-war blues activity in California). With the shipyards and aircraft factories desperate for labor during the war years, blacks flocked to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and small towns like Richmond, Fresno, Stockton and Modesto. One strain of blues that rose to prominence was a moody, after hours brand of piano blues popularized by the inimitable Charles Brown who himself was influenced by Nat King Cole. Brown’s influence was profound, setting the stage for fellow pianists like Amos Milburn, Floyd Dixon, Little Willie Littlefield, Ivory Joe Hunter, Cecil Gant and Roy Hawkins.

In the list of distinguished West Coast piano men Roy Hawkins is unjustly the most obscure and relatively little is know about him. In his heyday he worked extensively in Northern and Southern California, scoring big hits for Modern Records with all time classics “The Thrill Is Gone” and “Why Do things Happen to Me. ” Those who were influenced by Hawkins and covered his songs include B.B. King, James Brown and Ray Charles. Hawkins was out of music by the time of the 1960′s blues boom when artists were being rediscovered left and right and researchers were digging up everything they could about blues performers of all stripes. Despite all this activity Hawkins remained elusive and nobody seems to have talked to him at any length before he passed in 1974.

Like his contemporaries, Hawkins performed a mix of uptempo blues and mellow ballads usually backed by jazzy horns and prominent guitar. Hawkins excelled on doomy, after hours numbers where his smooth, honey soaked voice set the mood for late night drinking and moonlit strolls, the perfect soundtrack for a film noir movie. It wasn’t all doom and gloom as Hawkins and his well tuned band could rock with the best of them. Hawkins was blessed with superb backing on his records including outstanding guitarists like Ulysses James, Chuck Norris, Johnny Moore, T-Bone Walker and Lafayette Thomas. In addition there were great sax men like Lorenzo “Buddy” Floyd, Maxwell Davis and when he lost the use of his arm, high caliber piano from Lloyd Glenn and Willard McDaniel. Add to the mix a batch of first rate songs penned by Hawkins himself and you have all the ingredients for some classic music.

Producer Bob Geddins discovered Hawkins playing in an Oakland, CA nightspot and supervised his first 78s for his Cavatone and Downtown labels in 1948. Modern Records picked up the rights to several Downtown masters before signing Hawkins to a contract in 1949. Unfortunately not all of this material has been reissued but what is available show Hawkins to be a fully seasoned performer by this stage. “It’s Too Late To Change” sets the pattern; it’s a superb moody, fatalistic blues ballad sporting some lazy tenor from William Staples and guitar fills from the outstanding Ulysses James. In the same mold, and even better, is the existential “Strange Land” (“I’m drifting and drifting, trying to find a friend/I go from door to door but they just won’t let me in”) featuring superb musicianship, particularly the interplay between Hawkins’ piano and James’ T-Bone Walker inspired guitar lines. Also notable are the blistering instrumental rockers “Quarter To One” and “West Express.”

By his October 1949 session the records were being officially issued on Modern. It’s sounds as if the session was better rehearsed and certainly better produced. It was a fruitful session yielding more after hours gems like “Sleepless Nights” (I can’t sleep at night/I just roll and tumble all night long/I’ve got had this awful feeling, ever since you’ve been gone”), “Got My Dreams Under My Pillow” opening with some lovely piano and the classic “Why Do Everything Happen To Me.” There was more wailing material including the jazzy instrumentals “Hawk’s Shuffle”, “Royal Hawk”and the shuffling “On My Way” anchored by some catchy riffing horns and some all around incredible ensemble playing. The band on this session is listed as unknown but it’s likely the same one as the earlier sides, and certainly the remarkable fret work bears the hallmarks of James.

Show Notes:

For this week’s mix show a typically wide ranging mix of eclectic sides spanning from 1927 to 1976. This week’s shows has a fair dose of vintage country blues and acoustic numbers. Bill Williams was 73 when he made a wonderful debut for Blue Goose. He was a spectacular guitar player and a one time partner of Blind Blake. He died a few years after his debut but thankfully left behind enough material for one more album, “The Late Bill Williams – Blues, Rags and Ballads” which is the source of “Make Me A Pallet On The Floor.” Speaking of Blind Blake we play one of his most famous numbers, the dazzling “Sea Board Stomp.” I never tire of listening to Blake and I highly recommend JSP’s budget priced “All The Published Sides.” Another remarkable acoustic cut is by Roosevelt Charles a prisoner at the infamous Angola Penitentiary who made some field recordings in 1959-60 (many of which have never been issued). His magnificent vocal is heard on “Bye Bye Baby Blues” backed by guitarist Otis Webster. Also recorded in prison, at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, is the aptly name Confiners on the wailing “Harmonica Boogie” featuring some Ike Turner styled guitar from Sammy Walker.

Little Hat Jones

On the vintage country blues front we play a couple of terrific sides by Texas artists Little Hat Jones and the Black Ace. Jones cut ten fine sides at sessions in 1929 and 1931 including the gorgeous “Bye Bye Baby Blues” one of my all time favorite country blues tracks. He lived until 1981 but unfortunately never recorded again. B.K. Turner AKA Black Ace played National steel guitar on his lap with a slide like his mentor Oscar “Buddy” Woods.” He cut six sides in 1937 and an excellent album for Arhoolie in 1960 (the CD reissue includes the Arhoolie album with unissued sides plus the six early cuts). And then there’s Frenchy’s String Band on the terrific “Texas And Pacific”, good time music featuring trumpet and banjo. This one was the only 78 they cut with the flip being “Sunshine Special.”

We spotlight a few fine blues ladies including the bawdy Barrelhouse Annie. She cut five sides in 1937 including our selection, the salacious “If It Don’t Fit Don’t Force It.” If you’re wondering how this got past the censors the answer is it didn’t, it was never issued and neither was “Think You Need A Shot” or “Love Operation.” Speaking of forthright women there’s Little Esther on the sultry “I’m A Bad, Bad Girl” from her second session in 1951. She went on to record as Esther Phillips and was marvelous singer who recorded soul, country, pop and blues during her short, tragic life. When she sang the blues, however, there’s were few better and she remains vastly underrated. We’ll be spotlighting her in a future show. Memphis Minnie needs no introduction. Her recording career began in 1929 and here we catch up with her in 1953 still sounding fine on “In Love Again” with strong support from her husband, guitarist Ernest Lawlars (Little Son Joe) and pianist Little Brother Montgomery.

Also worth noting are some more recent cuts, relativity speaking, including Son Seals’ swinging “Four Full Seasons of Love” from 1976′s “Midnight Son”, my favorite album by him. Then there’s Luther Johnson heard on the 1966 cut “Creepin’ Snake.” This come from an interesting album on Victoria Spivey’s Spivey label titled “The Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band” featuring Otis Spann, Sammy Lawhorn, George Smith, Victoria Spivey and Muddy Waters (listed as Main Stream no doubt because of contract issues).

We also dip into a little soul with Eddie Bo’s “A Heap See (But A Few Know)” from 1964. Talk about underrated! Bo’s recording career, stretches from the mid-50’s on, starting out in New Orleans R&B and moving on, in the mid-60’s to soul and funk. He made more 45’s than any artist has in New Orleans other than Fats Domino. While he made plenty of his own records he was also a major producer, arranger and collaborator on scores of other records. He produced records for Irma Thomas, Robert Parker, Art Neville, Chris Kenner, Al “Carnival Time” Johnson and Johnny Adams. And yes Eddie Bo is still active! Speaking of New Orleans we also slip in a track by Willie Tee who passed away on Sept. 11.

The American Folk Blues Festival (AFBF) was an annual event, beginning in 1962, that featured the cream of American blues musicians barnstorming their way across Europe. Audio recordings of these performances have long been available. Video footage, on the other hand, has been kicking around for years as poor grade bootlegs and occasionally shown on European television until Hip-O began issuing the material on DVD starting in 2003. The quality of the DVD’s has been superb, the performances outstanding, and the fourth installment, The American Folk-Blues Festival: The British Tours 1963-1966, is every bit as good.

The impact of these annual tours had a profound impact on those that were in attendance. One of those in attendance was noted blues researcher Mike Rowe who’s breezy, vivid recollections fill out the included booklet. Also in the audience were future stars such as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page any many others who were directly influenced by what they saw. The rise of blues based bands like the The Rolling Stones, Yardbirds and Animals can be directly attributed to the AFBF. 40 years later the footage of that great event is every bit as awe inspiring and will no doubt have a profound effect on a whole new generation of blues fans.

The 18 selections stem from two events – the bulk from the American Folk Blues Festival with extras from Blues and Gospel Caravan. Performers include Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Lonnie Johnson, Big Joe Williams, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Joe Turner, Junior Wells and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The backing bands themselves were brimming with talent including Otis, Rush, Hubert Sumlin, Little Brother Montgomery, Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon and others.

With his pointy goatee, bowler hat and umbrella, Sonny Boy saunters on stage and mesmerizes the audience with an intimate, conversational version of “Keep It To Yourself.” A year later, in 1964, he’s back, sans the bowler for a wonderful solo rendition of “Bye By Bird” and backed by a full band, including the sparkling piano of Sunnyland Slim, on the gently shuffling “Getting Out of Town.”

A dapper Muddy Waters delivers a fine, if low boil, version of “Got My Mojo Working.” More interesting is “You Can’t Lose What You Never Had” and “Blow Wind Blow” from 1964′s Blues and Gospel Caravan. These performances were filmed at a Manchester railway station. It’s an odd bit of theatrics, with the station made up to look like a train station from the Old West as Muddy ambles into view with his coat and hat on, bag in hand, singing as he crosses the tracks, taking the stage where the band is already playing. Muddy lays down some outstanding electric slide on this number while on “Blow Wind Blow” he’s standing on the platform in the center of an enthusiastic crowd. Both numbers feature pianist Cousin Joe who introduces Muddy in the latter number. At the same event it’s Cousin Joe again who introduces Sister Rosetta Tharpe who makes her entrance in a horse drawn carriage. Rosetta straps on that big electric guitar and delivers a soaring, rocking version of “Didn’t It Rain” and a soulful rendition of “Trouble In Mind.”

Back to the AFBF we get a clinic in down home blues with marvelous solo performances by Big Joe Williams and Lightnin’ Hopkins. With his huge nine string guitar Big Joe delivers a powerful, clattering version of his signature tune “Baby Please Don’t Go.” If you’ve never seen live footage of Hopkins you’re in for a treat – he’s a captivating, charismatic performer, a born storyteller and of course an outstanding and utterly unpredictable guitar player who delivers two tour-de-force numbers.

Clearly the biggest applause is saved for the larger than life Howlin’ Wolf who dominates the stage like no one else. Wolf is is simply a force of nature as he puts across charged versions of “Smokestack Lightning” and the rollicking “Don’t Laugh At Me.” Wolf is backed by a terrific band including the incomparable Hubert Sumlin. In fact Sumlin is dazzling throughout, backing not only Wolf but Sonny Boy and Sugar Pie DeSanto.

Among the other performances everyone is at the top of their game including the pint sized dynamo Sugar Pie DeSanto, an unstoppable, gyrating Junior Wells who turns in a blistering James Brown inspired cover of “What’d I Say” and the imposing Big Joe Turner who like Wells is backed by a band that consists of Otis Rush and Little Brother Montgomery. I’m not sure what the audience quite thought of Lonnie Johnson who’s music was light years away from the gritty, down home blues that was so much in vogue. For his part Lonnie was magnificent on the elegant, solo blues ballad “Too Late To Cry”, a beautiful, subtle number seemingly a world apart from the other performances.

This review kicks off an ongoing spotlight we’ll be doing sporadically on out of print records. With the glut of blues reissues one would think just about everything worthwhile has been reissued but that’s far from the case. There’s many vinyl only treasures to be discovered for those collectors willing to do a little hunting. A case in point is “Blues Southside Chicago” a superb collection of Chicago blues artists recorded by Willie Dixon in 1964 and originally issued on UK Decca and reissued by Flyright in 1976. Additional sides from this session appeared on “Have A Good Time – Chicago Blues” issued in 1970 on the Sunnyland label which is also out of print.

Mike Leadbitter discusses the aim of the record in his liner notes: “This album was recorded In Chicago’s Southside by Willie Dixon with one aim in mind-to provide the English enthusiast with blues played as they are played in the clubs, without gimmicks and without interfering A & R men. This album is not intended to be commercial in any way and by using top artists and top session men an LP has been produced that doesn’t sound as cold as studio recordings usually do.” In a 1977 interview pianist Henry Gray recalled this session: “I remember, in 1964, Willie Dixon was asked by an English company to produce a couple of so-called Southside Chicago sessions. [Dixon was a very close friend of Howlin' Wolf and they talked together about that;] Wolf was not personally interested but he induced me to go and support some of the artists chosen by Dixon…Poor Bob Woodfork, Robert Nighthawk, Shakey Horton. That was issued on British Decca label. Yeah, I think it was representative of the kind of music we were playing in the Southside clubs at that time.”

Certainly one of the highlights is the two marvelous songs by Robert Nighthawk. Nighthawk influenced a generation of artists including Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Earl Hooker and supposedly Elmore James. In many ways Nighthawk was the archetype of the classic bluesman spending his entire adult life rambling all over the South with frequent trips to the North playing a never ending string of one nighters punctuated by sporadic recording dates. Nighthawk was tragically under recorded which make the two included songs all the more valuable. “Lula Mae” is a cover of the 1944 Tampa Red song and it was Tampa who was Nighthawk’s main influence. This is an exceedingly tough Chicago blues with Nighthawk’s heavy, gloomy vocals hanging over the song punctuated by the waling amplified harp of Walter Horton. “Merry Christmas” (Nighthawk cut another version for Testament the same year) is more of the same again with some extroverted playing by Horton. Nighthawk’s bottleneck playing is exceptional although a bit buried in the mix.

Johnny Young, who plays second guitar on the above sides, was a pal of Nighthawk’s and the two often played together on Maxwell Street. Young was a brilliant mandolin and guitar player who like Nighthawk was sadly under recorded. Backed by the same band as Nighthawk, Young is in fine form on the stripped down, heartfelt “Little Girl” laying down some intricate mandolin work while the shuffling “One More Time” virtually pops out of the speakers again with some dazzling harp from Horton.

Walter Horton always sounded best on other people’s records but comes across magnificently on “Can’t Help Myself” which opens with a lengthy upper register harmonica solo before Horton’s plaintive, impassioned vocals kick in. Horton’s harmonica work is stunning and it’s a shame he gets consistently overshadowed by Little Walter.

Guitarist Poor Bob (Woodfork) worked with Otis Rush, Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers and others but despite Leadbitter’s confidence that “he should go a long way after this superb start” this was the only session he ever recorded (two other songs appeared on the above mentioned Sunnyland LP). Backed by Buddy guy and Mighty Joe Young on guitars, Poor Bob delivers a an exciting blast of contemporary blues in “The Sun Is Rising” and the loping mid-tempo “I Won’t Be Happy” both highlighting his powerful, declamatory vocals.

Like Nighthawk, Homesick James was a bottleneck guitarist but with a more rudimentary technique, owing quite a bit to his cousin Elmore James. By the time of these recordings he was relatively under recorded with some scattered singles and one full length album cut for Prestige a few months prior. The combination of Homesick’s ringing bottleneck and emotionally charged vocals make a potent force on “Got To Move” and “Crutch And Cane” a thinly disguised version of “Look On Yonder Wall.”

Leadbitter calls the piano blues a dying art form and these days the tradition is hanging on by a lifeline. Back then there was still numerous fine piano men including Henry Gray (still with us thankfully) and Willie Mabon who back some of the other artists on this collection and Sunnyland Slim and Eddie Boyd who get two sides apiece under their own names. Sunnyland is in commanding form, hollering out the blues with abandon on the shuffling “I Got To Get To My Baby” and the regal “Everytime I Get To Drinking” a number he first waxed back in 1949, both sporting marvelous solos by Buddy Guy. Boyd is in equally strong form on “Losing Hand” and the bouncy “Where You Belong” again with outstanding contributions from Buddy guy.

A real treat is a gospel number by Ronda Mitchell & Mrs. Lovell in remembrance of the late President Kennedy. Kennedy’s assassination had a profound effect on the African-American community and there were many blues and gospel songs written in the wake of his death (1964 saw the release of “Can’t Keep From Crying” on Testament, a moving collection of these songs). “J.F. Kennedy’s Reservation” is a beautiful, moving, bluesy tribute sung in unison. It’s a wonderful track and I have no idea if the duo cut anything else.

Robert Nighthawk – Lula Mae (MP3)

Walter Horton – Can’t Help Myself (MP3)

Show Notes:

Muddy Waters was a larger then life figure who became a star in the late 1940′s and remained a huge presence on the blues landscape until his death in 1983. When Muddy arrived in Chicago from the Delta in 1943 he was just another struggling musician trying to establish himself. Pete Welding described his early years: “After several years of playing to slowly increasing audiences, first at houseparties and later in small taverns dotted throughout Chicago’s huge, sprawling South and West Side black-belt slums, he had begun to record.” In this feature we start by going back to the early years, not only playing Muddy’s early recordings but spotlighting the many recordings that find Muddy backing his friends and contemporaries. The bulk of Muddy’s session work spans from 1946 to the early 1950′s becoming much less frequent as his star rose. Still even in later years Muddy was always willing to back friends and band mates like Otis Spann, Little Walter, Luther Johnson and others.

In the early years he backed some of the city’s finest including Sunnyland Slim, Baby Face Leroy, Jimmy Rogers and Junior Well. Muddy made his first sides under his own name for Columbia as well as backing obscure artists like James “Beale Street” Clark and Homer Harris (the bulk of these sides remained unissued for decades). We begin the show by playing some of these records before moving on to his better known records for Aristocrat (which later became Chess).

In addition to hearing some of Muddy’s early efforts for the label including “I Can’t Be Satisfied” b/w”I Feel Like Going Home” (the latter was his first national R&B hit in 1948) we hear Muddy’s distinctive guitar backing Aristocrat artists such as Sunnyland Slim, Jimmy Rogers, St. Louis Jimmy, Little Johnny Jones and Baby Face Leroy.

Otis Spann helmed the piano chair in Muddy’s band for over fifteen years and Muddy returned the favor backing Spann on the albums “The Blues Never Die!” (as Muddy Rivers), “The Bottom of the Blues” and “The Blues Is Where It’s At.” He also backed Luther Johnson on two late 1960′s records, pops up with his band on “The Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band” (as Main Stream) on the Spivey label and did some all-star group recordings with Howlin’Wolf, Bo Diddley and others on “The Super Super Blues Band” and “Super Blues.”

It was Mamie Smith’s recording of “Crazy Blues” in 1920 that set off the blues craze, proving there was indeed a substantial market for blues records. Record companies sought to repeat the success by signing numerous blues ladies including some of the era’s most celebrated singers like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Victoria Spivey and Ida Cox. In addition to the big stars there were countless second and third stringers who recorded, most of whom have faded into obscurity. Mary Johnson of St. Louis (sometimes billed as “Signifying Mary”) came late to the game, making her debut in 1929, cut just shy of two dozen songs, achieved modest success and never recorded again after 1936 despite living until 1983. while it’s true that Johnson wasn’t in the same league as Bessie and Ma, she left behind a small, very impressive body of work that merits more attention.

Johnson got her start in show business as a teenager in St. Louis. and frequently worked with Lonnie Johnson who she married in 1925. They had six children together and divorced in 1932. Strangely the two never recorded together. Johnson was a fine singer with a clear, low, moaning style that came across well on record. She also wrote a number of moving songs, many filled with vivid violent and sexual imagery and an unrelenting bleak view of the world. Johnson was blessed with superb backing musicians throughout her brief career that elevated her recordings above many of her contemporaries. She was accompanied by either Henry Brown, Judson Brown, Roosevelt Sykes, or Peetie Wheetstraw on piano, many selections featuring trombonist Ike Rodgers, guitarists Tampa Red and Kokomo Arnold and violinist Artie Mosby.

She recorded 8 selections in 1929, 6 sides in 1930, two in 1932, four in 1934, and two final numbers in 1936. All of the 1929 sides feature the fine piano of Henry Brown and trombonist Ike Rogers on five of the eight sides. On her first coupling from May 7, 1929 is the superbly mournful “Muddy Creek Blues” sporting some prominent low down trombone from the always fine Ike Rogers. Johnson’s sets the tone for future records with a slow, deliberate, moaning vocal that perfectly suites the somber and chilling lyrics:

I went to the muddy creek this morning with my razor swinging in my hand (2x)
I said good morning Mr. Tadpole have you seen anything of my man

and concludes:

I say I’m black and evil, you sure don’t know my mind (2x)
I’ll cut you’re throat Mr. Tadpole, drink you’re blood like cherry wine

The phrase “black and evil” was echoed a few months later by fellow St. Louis singer Alice Moore in “Black And Evil Blues”, her biggest hit which also featured Ike Rogers. Two days later Johnson waxed one more 78 with the same group; “Black Men Blues” sans Rogers and “Western Union Man”were strong blues in the same mold as her first numbers. Her final session in November 1929 yielded four more numbers, notably “Barrel House Flat Blues” and “Key To The Mountain Blues.” The latter is a surreal, sexual number as she sings “My man’s in the mountain(2x)/And I got the mountain key” before a lengthy passage where she moans suggestively in response to Roger’s seductive trombone lines and makes spoken asides like “play it for your freakish mama” and “Oh it feels so good.” She never cut anything else quite like this and oddly the song was covered by Jesse Thomas who recorded it in Los Angles in1948 as “Mountain Key Blues.”

Johnson cut six sides at two sessions in 1930. The April 8, 1930 was outstanding do in large part to the shimmering slide guitar of Tampa Red and the excellent piano of the under recorded Judson Brown. The two work beautifully behind Johnson on the mournful “Three Months Ago Blues” with Tampa shinning on “Dawn Of Day Blues” and the magnificent “Death Cell Blues” which opens in tough, forthright fashion:

I killed my man last year, lord, the man I really love
He did not treat me right now he’s with the good lord above
Woman don’t never love so hard, until you take your good man’s heart
When they put you in the death cell the whole world seems dark
(spoken) Lord, lord I’m bound for the death cell

“Friendless Gal Blues” has echoes of Lonnie Johnson’s “Friendless And Blues” from 1938. The themes of alienation an loneliness, of being adrift in an unforgiving world, are wonderfully evoked by Johnson’s moaning, moving delivery punctuated by Tampa’s sympathetic slide:

I’m just a friendless little girl
I’m traveling from door to door
Everywhere I go they tell me that I can’t come here no more
People I ain’t got no mother, I ain’t got no dad
Trouble is the only thing that I have ever had

The next day she cut two more strong numbers with backing just from Judson Brown who’s marvelous ragtime flavored playing is heard to good effect particularly on “Morning Sun Blues.”

1932 found Johnson cutting one 78; “Rattlesnake Blues” and “Mary Johnson Blues” which Chris Smith notes “are clearly a response to the recent, acrimonious end of her marriage.” Once again she’s in good company with Roosevelt Sykes on piano, in quite lively fashion on the former number, and violinist Curtis Mosby on the latter track.

Johnson was back in the studio in 1934 with old friends Henry Brown and Ike Rogers on board. Four songs were cut at three sessions including “Those Black Man Blues” and remake of 1929′s “Black Men Blues” which was a modest hit. Perhaps she was running out of inspiration as she also cut a variation of Joe Pullum’s huge hit “Black Gal What makes Your Head So Hard?” which Pullum cut just five months prior. Her version, “Black Gal Blues”, is quite good as she emulates Pullum’s delivery which makes the song sound different than anything else she recorded and also fiddles with the lyrics giving it her own personal stamp. Perhaps the standout is the gorgeous “Peepin’ At The Risin’ Sun” featuring terrific piano from the ever reliable Henry Brown who also gets plenty of room to stretch out on the fine “Deceitful Woman Blues.”

Johnson’s final sessions were done in 1936 at three different sessions with only two songs released and four numbers unissued. The May 22 session saw only “Delmar Avenue” issued with heavyweight support from Peetie Wheatstraw on piano and Kokomo Arnold on guitar. Johnson immortalizes the well known St. Louis thoroughfare on a solid number that finds her voice sounding a bit heavier then usual: “Sitting on Delmar Avenue, watching the cars go by(2x)/Well I could not see nothing but the blue clouds in the sky.” Henry Brown described the avenue this way to Paul Oliver: “Deep Morgan …they call it Delmar Avenue now …That was all just them low-down sportin’ houses and receration parlours you know, call ‘em receration parlours. Like a barrelhouse joint.” The next day she cut “I Just Can’t Take It” which bears a resemblance to the “Dirty Dozens” with stomping piano support from Wheatstraw as Johnson exhorts him to “play it Peter, play it.”

After these recordings Mary Johnson abandoned the blues for religion. Supposedly she recorded some religious sides but these were never issued. Paul Oliver interviewed her in 1960 for his book “Conversation With The Blues” and described her this way: “Living with her mother Emma Williams in an apartment on Biddle Street, St. Louis, above the premises of a wholesale dealer in live fish, Mary Johnson has known considerable poverty for many years” Sadly it’s common story and despite a fairly successful career as a blues singer it had little marked improvement on her way of life and left no safety net for later years. While her early sides are admired by collectors she remains virtually forgotten today.

Muddy Creek Blues (MP3)

Death Cell Blues (MP3)

Peepin’ At The Risin’ Sun (MP3)

Show Notes:

More piano-based and jazz-influenced than anything else, West Coast Blues is really California blues even if most of the main practitioners actually hailed from Texas. There was no pre-war blues activity in California but the the post-war blues era was booming. With the shipyards and aircraft factories desperate for labor during the war years, blacks flocked to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and small towns like Richmond, Fresno, Stockton and Modesto. The non-white population exploded from 80, 000 in 1930 to 462,000 by 1950. Numerous small independent labels popped up in the 40′s to cater to this new market including Aladdin, Swingtime, Modern, Speciality and many smaller outfits who specialized in R&B and blues and would take more chances than the more established labels.

In this week’s feature we spotlight the West Coast piano tradition which was kick started by the inimitable Charles Brown. As Tony Russell wrote: “In the late summer of 1945 Charles Brown recorded “Driftin’ Blues”, a moonlight sonata of rootlessness and uncertainty. It was perhaps the first blues hit of the postwar blues period, and it expanded the language of the blues as dramatically as Leroy Carr’s “How Long – How Long Blues” 17 years earlier.” Brown’s influence was profound, setting the stage for fellow pianists like Amos Milburn, Floyd Dixon, Little Willie Littlefield, Roy Hawkins, Ivory Joe Hunter and Cecil Gant.

Amos Milburn signed with Aladdin in 1946 and had the first of19 Top Ten R&B smashes with 1948′ storming “Chicken Shack Boogie.” In addition to rocking boogies he he could croon in the best Charles Brown manner. In the same mold was Little Willie Littlefield who made his debut in 1948 racking up major R&B hits with “It’s Midnight” and “Farewell.” Floyd Dixon also debuted in 1948 earning many comparisons to his mentor Charles Brown although eventually developing a grittier, more soulful sound than Brown. Dixon hit locally with 1949′s “Dallas Blues.” Aladdin Records acquired Dixon’s contract with Modern in late 1950, immediately pairing him with Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers for “Telephone Blues,” his first nationwide hit. Roy Hawkins too made his debut in 1948 although less well remembered than his contemporaries. Hawkins had two major R&B hits: 1950′s “Why Do Things Happen to Me” and “The Thrill Is Gone” the following year.

Due to time constraints we don’t have time to do proper justice to two other fine pianists, Ivory Joe Hunter and Cecil Gant. Gant’s 1944 debut ,”I Wonder,” topped the R&B charts and its flip “Cecil’s Boogie,” was a hit in its own right. Further hits followed and he stayed at the label until switching over to Bullet in 1948. Hunter started his own label, Ivory Records, to press up his “Blues at Sunrise” (with Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers backing him), and it became a national hit when leased to Exclusive in 1945. He followed with hit sides for King where he cut his immortal “I Almost Lost My Mind” (another R&B chart-topper in 1950), Atlantic, Vee-Jay, Smash and Capitol.

It’s hard to keep up with glut of blues reissues mostly pumped out by European labels taking full advantage of the fifty year copyright law. One label that deserves attention is Boulevard Vintage who for the past few years have been putting out intelligent, well conceived multi CD sets of post-war down home blues. The label has zeroed in on a very specific, rich vein of blues history, roughly 1945-1955 when a whole slew of enterprising small labels were catering to an audience that still craved down home blues. As Paul Vernon writes: “The migratory patterns from south to north to west added an essential ingredient to the new market for blues recording. Urbanization created tastes for a music that fit the new times and locations , contributing to the birth of what we now recognize as Rhythm & Blues. In Chicago, the southern rural styles, as we now all surely know, were connected directly to 110-volt wall sockets and booted through fuzzy amplifiers to create the sound that would eventually go around the world. Yet there was still an audience for the rough, exciting music of southern juke joints and street corners, of local radio broadcasts and house parties. Who was going to service that market?” The answer can be found on the 110 songs spread across Boulevard Vintage’s two latest 2-CD sets.

Down Home Blues Classics – Memphis & The South 1949-1954 collects music recorded in locales like Jackson, MS, Memphis, TN, New Orleans, LA, Crowley, LA for labels dear to record collectors hearts such as Sun, Trumpet, Bullet, Excello, Imperial and several others. Many of the artists will be familiar to collectors and we get multiple cuts by artists like Joe Hill Louis, Arthur Crudup (moonlighting under Percy Crudup!) Lightning Slim, Papa Lightfoot, Big Joe Williams, Jerry McCain among others. What’s nice about this series is that compilers tend to pull out the less anthologized, obscurer sides by these artists. So while we get the well known, and simply amazing, “Wine, Whiskey & Women” by Papa Lightfoot we also get his pounding harmonica wailer “P. L. Blues”, likewise for Willie Nix’s celebrated “Truckin’ Little Woman”which is on board but so is the much less known flip side, the unbelievably raw, “Just One Mistake.”

It’s the rarer stuff, less anthologized that makes these sets so valuable. While Boogie Bill Webb is not exactly an unknown his sides are not readily available. His two cuts here are particularly welcome especially the throbbing John Lee Hooker boogie of “Bad Dog.” It’s too bad his two other Imperial sides weren’t included. We get a batch of fine down home sides by obscure artists like Country Jim Bledsoe, the marvelous Louis Campbell (these two never before issued numbers are not even listed in the blues discography), Tommy Lee (one of only 5 known copies of this rarity) and three of the four excellent tracks the by the mysterious Little Sam Davis cut for Rockin’ in 1953 featuring some of the earliest guitar by Earl Hooker.

Down Home Blues Classics – California & The West Coast 1948-1954 delves into the fascinating records made in the immediate post-war era, mainly in California, mostly by those migrating from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. As Mike Rowe writes: “Unlike New York and Chicago there had been no blues or any kind of recording industry pre-war …The music as well as the industry was starting from scratch. …It was very often of Do-It yourself triumphing over the most adverse conditions.”

While the above collection had it’s fair share of well known artists that’s not the case here. This collection, to quote the blurb, “presents probably the rarest recordings and the least-researched artists of the post-war era …there were many experiments to delight and intrigue us along the way; eschewing the bigger names we document those attempts rather than the final result.” In fact the only big name to speak of is K.C. Douglas who’s four sides include his first recordings notably his celebrated “Mercury Boogie.” Douglas’ harmonica player, Sidney Maiden, may also be somewhat known chiefly due to an album he cut for Bluesville. Maiden takes the vocals on the wonderfully doomy “Eclipse of the Sun” and pair of strong sides from 1955.

Only hardcore collectors are likely to know obscure artists such as Black Diamond, Slim Green, Willie B Huff, Sonny Boy Johnson, Little Son Willis, Jerry Perkins among others. The preponderance of lesser names has no bearing on the music which is uniformly strong. Take Willie B Huff, a magnificent down home singer who typified the emerging slow, doomy west coast sound. All four of Huff’s sides are here including superb renditions of Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “Hello Central” as “Operator 209″ and “Short Haired Woman” as “Beggar Man Blues.” Other highlights include Sonny Boy Holmes, a fine Hopkins imitator whose sole four sides are on board, Slim Green’s version of Curtis Jones’ Tin Pan Alley as “Alla Blues” (a song that would evolve into the West Coast blues standard “Tin Pan Alley”), all eight Swing Time sides by the wonderful pianist/vocalist Little Son Willis who sounds like Doctor Clayton – his “Harlem Blues” a cover of Clayton’s “Angels In Harlem” and the mysterious Black Diamond who’s two fine solo guitar numbers are his only sides.

Both of these sets come highly recommended boasting very good sound (a definite upgrade from prior reissues) and very informative notes. Boulevard Vintage also has 4-CD sets of Chicago and Texas blues that are equally good and I can’t wait to see what they put out next.

Boogie Bill Webb – Bad Dog (MP3)

Louis Campbell – Don’t Want Anyone Hangin’ Around (MP3)

Little Son Willis – Nothing But The Blues (MP3)

Willie B Huff – Operator 209 (MP3)